new look (and title)

I thought a change of pace was in order for this little corner of cyberspace. Perhaps I'll return to the old title eventually, but for now I wanted to refocus myself a little bit on something I've been struggling with for a long time: the balance between pride and humility. It's important to remember that humility isn't thinking you can't do anything. Instead it's the knowledge that we can do all things in Christ, not in our own strength. The new title comes from the great hymn in Philipians 2:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (NIV)

The quote comes from The Gulag Archipelago, by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn. Here was a man who had seen the very worst of humanity, yet he would not offer a blanket condemnation. He recognized that even his tormentors were made in the image of God, and consequently could not be called evil. If only we could all be that humble when we consider our enemies!